As they say, you can enlighten your senses and satisfy your sweet tooth with their fresh homemade biscotti, cannoli, bigne, sfoglia or decadent cakes.

This is by far one of the best places I have eaten Italian deserts and pastries from. If you are ever in town, I would take their good advice and…

Try one of our desserts made with the finest Italian cannoli shells, traditional zeppole for San Giuseppe and/or sfoglia shells shaped filled with fresh ricotta and cream or our time honoured traditional Italian Tiramisu made with espresso, mascarpone and savoiardi.

This elegant, yet unassuming, pasticceria is one of the most popular go-to shops when you need to make a great impression with a cake for any special occasion.

They specialize in delicious and beautiful creations from elegant wedding cakes to simple sfoglia-based birthday cakes. All the cakes, pies, pastries and cookies are made in-house by owner and head chef Anthony Macri. He is a great person who makes every visit (yes, we went more than once) a warm and friendly one.

A first experience. I flew a plane, well, with a little help! And the weather was just perfect to be up in the clouds…

Canadian Flight Academy Ltd. is an independently owned and operated Flight Instruction School operating from the Oshawa Municipal Airport in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

Their sister school Toronto Airways Ltd operates out of one of the busiest airports in Canada, Toronto Buttonville airport located just north of Toronto, Ontario.

Combined they are one of the largest professional flight training facilities in Canada with over forty aircraft and fifty instructors. Together they provide their students with the benefit of over forty years experience in training future pilots.

Canadian Flight Academy offers a huge range of aircraft available for rent. From a single prop trainer, to a multi engine IFR ready machine with a Garmin 430 moving map GPS.

I was accompanied by my wife’s niece. This lady was terrified of heights, she hates flying, flying and her are just not compatible. She opted to go with me in this flight experience to try and deal with her fear.

After belting up at the back, the realisation that my wife’s niece is going first, as in she will be flying the plane first, had dawned upon me. My worrisome face is a result of remembering how she drives. With all respect, she is not that bad at driving…its that she has had a few knocks, lets leave it at that!

Back seat view as we begin to take off, exciting and nervous at the same time.

A few people thought she was crazy for doing this, especially bearing in mind that she was due to get married in four days, what a time to face your fears of flying! However, taking in the beautiful views, it very soon became very worth it no matter how crazy.

Flown like a natural, clearly something she always had inside her!

The photo below I took as we headed back to the airport to do the change over for me to have my experience, it was a very quick turn that really make your insides turn over, definitely would advise to eat light before doing this flight experience.

You can get an idea of the turn through this short video.

I loved the experience and so happy that we did this. The feeling of flying a plane and being in control of it by yourself was fantastic. Highly recommend.

A proud and successful moment, here I asked her if she would like to go again, she gave me a relatively polite decline to the offer, but very well done.

Niagara SkyWheel is a Ronald Bussink Professional Rides designed R60 Giant Wheel, manufactured by Chance Rides and supplied by Chance Morgan. It opened on 17 June 2006, at a cost of $10 million. The views were fantastic, below, The American Falls.

Its 42 Swiss-manufactured fully enclosed passenger cars can each carry eight people and are heated in the winter and air conditioned in the warmer months.

The ride is approximately 12 to 15 minutes long, giving passengers views of the Niagara River, and the Horseshoe Falls and American Falls, and is open all year. Below, the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.

Crazy golf dinosaur park, the kids loved this, well worth the visit.

]]>https://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/20/skywheel/feed/0mubeenazamgimg_9819Daffodils over the Fallshttps://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/17/daffodils-over-the-falls/
https://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/17/daffodils-over-the-falls/#commentsFri, 17 Jun 2016 02:51:29 +0000http://chillitsmubeen.com/?p=9642Continue reading Daffodils over the Falls]]>While spring was arriving, we were fortunate enough to be in Niagara Falls. Although we had been there many times before, seeing the daffodils was very special and on top of that, the weather was incredible.

With the short lived time to experience daffodils, especially in such a wonderful place, this was an extra treat in addition to an already fantastic wonder of the world.

Dazzling daffodils on display with the bridge from Niagara to Buffalo in the distance with the American Falls to the right.

Just a short video from a balcony showing the awe and magnificence of these wonderful falls.

]]>https://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/17/daffodils-over-the-falls/feed/5mubeenazamgimg_9784Ontario Power Generationhttps://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/14/ontario-power-generation/
https://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/14/ontario-power-generation/#commentsTue, 14 Jun 2016 03:03:21 +0000http://chillitsmubeen.com/?p=9610Continue reading Ontario Power Generation]]>Ontario Power Generation produces almost half of the electricity that Ontario homes, schools, hospitals and businesses rely on each day.

Though you’ve possibly never heard of him, Sir Adam Beck made changes that allowed Ontarians to live a comfortable, productive life. Born in Baden, Ontario, Adam Beck became the Mayor of London and the first Chairman of The Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. He grew up in the nineteenth century — a time when electric wires did not crisscross the province, and when ordinary people could not access electricity. Beck wanted to change that. He believed that electricity should be affordable for everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful.

“The gifts of nature are for the public,” he said, and the gift of nature he was most determined to harness was the hydroelectric potential of the Niagara River. He was certain that the waterpower of this river could be and should be harnessed. So he made it happen, by overseeing the building of the first generating station near Queenston, Ontario and a canal that diverted water to it from the upper Niagara River.

Beck lived to see hydroelectric power begin to flow across Ontario. For his vision and his devotion to the public good, he was knighted by King George V — and became Sir Adam Beck. His statue still stands at a prominent intersection in Toronto, where University Avenue and Queen Street meet.

Sir Adam Beck would not have hesitated to build the world’s largest tunnel. By dreaming big, and making those dreams happen, Ontario Power Generation hopes to follow Sir Beck’s example — to build a clean, renewable future for Ontario.

In 2014, OPG burned its last piece of coal to make electricity. This was the largest single action to combat climate change in North America to date.

In 2015, about 60 per cent of the power generated came from OPG’s nuclear power plants and about 40 per cent was generated from the hydroelectric stations.

One kilowatt hour (kWh) is a measure of electricity demand or supply per hour. The typical customer uses approximately 800 kWh per month.

The Pier 6 building is the oldest structure on Toronto’s Central Waterfront.

Built in 1907 at the foot of Bay Street as a simple freight shed leased by a ferry company, it became property of the newly formed Toronto Harbour Commissioners in 1911.

In 1926, due to a changing shoreline, caused by waterfront development, the building had to be relocated. It was sawed in half, the south portion was floated over to the foot of York Street where the Toronto Harbour Commissioners used it as a storage shed for the next two decades. In 1953, it was leased to the Royal Canadian Yatch Club and served as its “city station” until 1979.

Inside, you can treat yourself to a Beaver Tail or a Moozoo smoothie or gelato…highly recommend all!!!

Because of its unique status as the oldest structure still on the waterfront, the building avoided demolition in the early 1980s, although it had to be relocated yet again, a few meters west to make room for developments on York Quay. Then in 1988, it was moved to its current location at the front of York Street, where it served as a waterfront information centre for several years.

Over its lifespan the building has also been a water gauge used to measure lake levels, a storage house for stage props, a vehicle garage, an office, a restaurant and a cafe. It has survived several relocations, vandalism and a fire in 1918 that destroyed an adjacent ferry terminal. It is the only remaining example of Toronto’s waterfront architecture from the turn of the 20th century.

The Toronto Harbour Commissioners became the Toronto Port Authority on June 8th 1999, under the Canada Marine Act.

Movement is driven by the interplay of sound, visuals and light, interacting with and responding to sensors. We direct our focus and energy from the internal to the external world by modulating the speed and dynamics of our motion.

Through this movement, the performance establishes abridge to a dreamlike state and the hidden world of thought, manifesting it in reality. Steer considers the impact on humanity of the merging flesh and technology.

Zata Omm Dance Projects is Zen and the Actualization of Modern Movement. Artistic Director William Yong has made the organisation a site for research focusing on the integration of dance, technology and broader culture.

Zata Omm is in constant development with ongoing research that explores the artistic climate, reflects contemporary culture and leads emerging artistic trends.

Zata Omm’s objective is to create multidisciplinary contemporary dance works, integrating dance, technology and other art forms onstage in order to provide an alternative way of seeing our world, and to facilitate our exploration and understanding of the human condition.

Zata Omm is a forward-thinking dance company with a unique aesthetic renowned for its ability to humanise technological elements and create a deep connection with audiences. William Yong has created more than 65 dance works worldwide.

Zata Omm strives to demonstrate environmental responsibility by using renewable energy. All electricity Zata Omm consumes at Fleck Dance Theater during the week of Steer is being offset by Bullfrog Power Inc.

]]>https://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/08/steer/feed/0mubeenazamPool transformationhttps://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/06/pool-transformation/
https://chillitsmubeen.com/2016/06/06/pool-transformation/#respondMon, 06 Jun 2016 21:31:58 +0000http://chillitsmubeen.com/?p=9871Continue reading Pool transformation]]>The winter is over (I think!), spring had arrived and now summer is in our midst (although I have been told not to rely on the fact that we are in ‘summer’ as Toronto weather can sometimes be unpredictable).

As some of you may have read from my posts last summer, my brother-in-law has an outdoor swimming pool. With children it is a blessing, especially when the weather is dry and warm. However, when spring arrives, preparation to clean and get the pool ready after the winter has passed must get underway.

The first thing is to carefully remove the cover, ensuring as much as possible not to drop the cover from any end otherwise you will end up with lots of leaves and winter dirt in the water which is exactly what you are trying to avoid in this process.

Step one successfully done (it took five of us), we managed to remove a lot of leaves around the area before removing the cover, then we were greeted by…like a swamp from hell!

As you can see, you don’t swim in water like this, when we looked closer, there were all sorts of living things floating and swimming around. Time to start the filter and start the cleaning process.

Within a couple of days, there is a slow but sure change in the cleaning process. Still far from swimmable, but going in the right direction. The water has to be basically shocked with chlorine to really get the water moving and filtering.

At this stage the floor can still not be seen and the water is still very dirty.

After a few days (and a few extra as the filter needed sorting) the delight of the kids could not be held in, when they heard then saw that the pool was ready, they jumped in…literally, with their clothes on, the delight of summer is upon us.

In the mid-19th century these streets were laid over the Denison family estate.

The tightly knit blocks of businesses, homes and community institutions evolved as successive waves of immigrants, attracted by the relative affordability of the area, added their cultural imprint to the city.

The district was first occupied by British workers, then by Jewish immigrants who converted the Victorian houses into small small family-run stores by adding makeshift ground-floor shops.

As a result, the area was known for decades as the Jewish market. After the Second World War, new Canadians from Italy, Portugal, Western Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia were drawn here, each in turn adding to the vibrant life of this culturally diverse marketplace.

Below, beyond the park and houses of the streets of Kensington Market, the financial district of downtown Toronto and the CN tower.

The synagogue is next to the park, part of the rich history of this place.

Tolerance and integration have been vital to the development of this cosmopolitan community, which is distinguished by constant renewal.

Filled with scents and sounds from around the world, Kensington Market recalls the history of the Canadian urban immigrant experience.

In a short time, we met some wonderful people from different parts of the world, it really is fascinating experiencing life in one of the most diverse cities in the world.

BeaverTails and Queues de Castor are a Canadian-based chain of pastry stands operated by BeaverTails Canada Inc. The chain’s namesake product is a line of fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail.

The chain originated in Killaloe, Ontario in 1978 and opened its first permanent store in Ottawa two years later. It now has franchises and licenses in four countries: Canada, the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

The BeaverTails pastry is similar to several other fried dough pastries and is topped with a choice of sweet condiments and confections, such as whipped cream, banana slices, crumbled oreos, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate hazelnut.

If you have not tried BeaverTails, you must try, especially if you have a sweet tooth like me and you like the look of the toppings above, scrumptious is certainly one way of describing them!

Below is a fine example of how a Beaver Tail can be enjoyed, she was so engrossed (as you can see from her eyes) that she was oblivious of me in front of her.